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Death Bed: The Bed That Eats
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Directed by George Barry
Starring Demene Hall
Decades worth of innocent travelers fall prey to a demonic and hungry piece of furniture in this long-lost cult film, which was completed in 1977, but not released until a quarter-century later. In a tiny stone castle in the woods, the ghost of a flouncy artist (Dave Marsh/voice of Patrick Spence-Thomas) remains trapped inside the walls and witnesses the strange goings-on that give the film its title. It seems that the magnificent canopy bed that dominates the decor is actually the resting place of a demon who built it to seduce a lovely maiden back in 1897. Their unnatural congress having killed the poor girl, her monstrous Casanova became one with his creation and proceeded to snack on anybody who chanced across his rustic retreat. As the ghost watches, horrified, additional victims fall prey to the pernicious pallet. But the reign of terror may finally be over when the bed receives a visit from a pair of young siblings (Rosa Luxemburg and William Russ). The lone film by writer/director George Barry, Death Bed did not find distribution until 25 years after its 1977 completion -- and then only thanks to an Internet review of a bootleg copy. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats received its U.S. premiere at the San Francisco International Horror Festival February 15, 2003. A mural of the titular abomination by noted occultist Austin Osman Spare figures prominently in the film's plot. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
lost interest.
Idiosyncratic even for a cult film that languished in obscurity for more than two decades, this baroque tale of terror works best as an absurdist comedy -- a curiosity worth seeing just for the puzzlement it invokes. If it was meant to be funny, then it's one of the most deadpan satires in cinematic history. If not, well, who cares? It's a head-scratchingly ridiculous good time. From the coquettish narration (by Patrick Spence-Thomas) to the zombie-like acting of its default protagonists (Rosa Luxemburg and William Russ), everything is off just enough to suggest that the picture was conceived, if not filmed, during a controlled-substance free-for-all. Then there's the bed itself: a gigantic set-piece that seems to expand until it rules the entire picture. There's no suspense here, really, just languid set-ups in-between scenes of unsuspecting sleepers sinking into the luxurious mire of the mattress and into the viscous, urine-like digestive fluids that seems to exist outside of time and space -- a primordial muck. Characters disappear out of the frame and then bob back into it as skeletons, provoking guffaws at the inventiveness of the low-budget production design. Just when it seems that the film can't get any stranger, we're treated to an extended sequence in which one lucky character escapes the bed's pillowy embrace only to have his hands turn into bones that slowly disintegrate as he watches, transfixed as if by a lava lamp. The fiery, poorly filmed finale provides the only sour note, for pyrotechnics are an anti-climax to everything that's gone before. Otherwise, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats is a major classic in the what-were-they-thinking school of horror. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
 

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achance42
achance42
loved it.
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lady-franky
lost interest.
digitalconquest
digitalconquest
disliked it.
Diabolical_Shadow
Diabolical_Shadow
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